Influence of Social Class on Politics Essay

Political sociology deals with the study of political power and the correlation between political, state and society conflict. Political sociology is based on power and authority, with emphasis on the relationship between the state and civil society. Research on political sociology involves of aspects such as state formation based on social and political grounds and effect of social inequality in groups like race, class, or gender influences politics.America is depicted as a stratified nation yet it is divided on based on wealth and income. As society endeavors towards modernization and as politics become more dominant, it becomes hard to distinguish formation of society and political formulation. Influence of class on power on power is based on the idea that the society is controlled by privileged people in the society and that each individual belongs a particular class depending on the amount of wealth one owns (Chomsky, 2016). The endeavor to bring fairness and equality by implementing taxation can be assessed with a system whereby workers with high income pay more taxes compared to those with low income.

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Since political sociology is based on the role of power and politics in society. An individual's wealth can be assessed by the resources which he or she owns and controls. Although wealth and power are distinguished as two distinct concepts that do not have the same meaning, researchers show that they are intertwined so that the existence of one brings about the other. Domhoff(2014) beheld that wealth brings power while power is a tool used to gain riches and resources (Domhoff, 2014).

The relation between power and wealth is manifested through different means. Firstly, wealthy people dominate the society donating to political associations and giving allotment to policymakers whose tasks involve establishing policies that benefit the well off. Secondly, other kinds of wealth, for example, shares can be used as a strategy to regulate banks, corporations or businesses; thereby influencing the functioning of the community. Power can be means of getting wealth as leaders in higher positions may use such opportunities to make contracts and deals that would benefit them (Domhoff 2014).

The elite establish themselves on the concepts created in the process involving policy-formation and accomplishments in the elections to have dominion over the government. Lobbyists, trade associations, and law enterprises assume an important part in forming a government on issues concerning business sectors or particular corporations; nevertheless, their significance ought not to be falsified because the majority of elected leaders are inclined to concur with them. The policy-formation and the corporate group provide top appointees to governmental and different policy bearings on significant issues. However, due to electoral success and public opinion, the elite face rivalry from the outnumbered elected officials with their allies in work unions. Their rivals who are supported by conservatives may succeed in hindering their activities; however, these successes are the result of support from conservatives. The corporate proprietors have interest and capacity to involve themselves in governance by working with top administrators in corporate society to create power elite group that leads the whole corporate. The idea of power elite clarifies that not all individuals of the upper class would like to involve themselves in ruling; they may choose to simply enjoy the pleasures of life using their wealth. Meanwhile, there is an emphasis on the idea that not everyone in power elite belongs to the wealthy.

Pluralism is a view where decision making and politics are generally located in government system; hitherto, numerous non-governmental organizations utilize their wealth to have influence. Pluralism guarantees that power is broadly distributed evenly in classes or groups. Therefore no power group one dominates. Pluralism portrays that power is influenced by the public through democracy. Citizens form deliberate groups with influence aiming at shaping public opinion and backing up sympathetic political candidates during elections. Another kind of pluralism portrays that power is established extensively inefficient work groups that are usually based in economic benefits such as bankers, industrialists, or labor unions and also to serve interests like civil rights and environmental groups as well. These groups come together on various occasion depending on particular issues. Some researchers believe that voting or public opinion have a minimal and indirect impact and business dominated groups are antagonistic and excessively fragmented to form a firm close-knit class. However, the business groups are part of a cohesive corporate society that can to establish unity to deal with important issues such as high taxes, government regulation and resistance to unions. Liberal and workgroups hardly unite with business groups.

Some people believe in an ideal democratic society which offers the free market that gives proportionate opportunities to create wealth and ascend to power. Therefore, the wealthy would only rise to political influence through diligence and individual successes (Davis, 1971). Therefore, it is justified that political positions can be equally occupied by both the wealthy and the poor. On the other hand, other people advocate that the society is undoubtedly controlled by the wealthy who dominate or own lands, business enterprises, and income generating assets.While democracy guarantees impartiality and lawful equity to every citizen, the system comprising of the class of the wealthy give rise to unequal monetary power and hence conceivable political imbalance as well. It is justified that the wealthy utilize their resources to establish political, social, and economic structures that benefit them. On the other hand, the poor are oppressed through labor that enslaves them since as they rely on the wages for survival.

Taxation has been established to create balance and enhance fair distribution of national resources. Taxation system follows a principle that workers earning high-income earners pay higher taxes than those earning low-income earners. This suggests that there is increased percentage of rich people's resources taken back to the national economy that would consequently be used to improve the status of the less wealthy people. A transfer payment is yet another system used to facilitate fairness in the appropriation of resources (Foran et al., 2004). Transfer payments is an allocation the government pays the needy, for example, jobless and elderly individuals who do not afford basic needs particularly housing, food, and medical administrations. Therefore, the state takes legal responsibility to use the tax collected to provide for the poor people in the society to the gap between the poor and the rich.

Conclusion

In conclusion, elite domination does not invalidate the reality of continuous strife over government protocols, but few differences involving difficulties to rules and regulations which favor the upper class and domination by the elites. Majority of the conflicts are within the interests groups, for instance, they are only about particular resources. Usually, they involve misunderstanding between contending business groups. Therefore, the society calls for a change in social, political and economic regulations that would help to rebuild her in a way hence reduces the gap between people from upper class and lower class. Therefore, there is a need for a strategy that aims at the capability of wealth creation and maintenance among the wealthy as well as to be means of strengthening people earning low income to be equivalent investors in the national economy. This would additionally establish a genuine democracy in the society whereby both economic and political power is controlled the majority and serves to benefit the whole society.

References

Chomsky, N. (2016). Who rules the world?.Metropolitan Books.Domhoff, G. W. (2014). Who Rules America? (7thed.).

Davis, D. B. (Ed.). (1971). The fear of conspiracy: Images of un-American subversion from the revolution to the present(Vol. 113). Cornell University Press.

Foran, J. R., Mont, M. A., Etienne, G., Jones, L. C., & Hungerford, D. S. (2004). The outcome of total knee arthroplasty in obese patients. JBJS, 86(8), 1609-1615.